Teens’ Camps

Teens will focus on traditional metal working skills as well as experience the newest ways of working with metal in this camp. Students will learn to cut, pierce, form, file, join and finish metals on their way to finishing several projects, including jewelry, in various metals. Creativity will be encouraged as students develop their own designs while working safely. The instructor will guide individual students’ creative efforts in addition to class demonstrations. There will be a show at the end of the camp where you’ll display your finished pieces for family and friends!

This camp will focus on the process of drawing accurate portraits. Working from live models as well as photo reference materials, teens will learn about the head and facial structural proportions that we share, as well as pinpointing that which makes us unique. Students will learn proper facial feature placement through measuring techniques to create a likeness of the model. No class 7/4.

This week-long camp introduces students to writing poetry, both for the uninitiated and the experienced writer, highlighting various creative techniques, including the cut-up poem, confessional poem, dreams, everyday sightings, rhymed verse, and several other approaches. The language of music, including rap and hip-hop, is discussed, and a variety of poets are looked at for models. The goal is to work each morning to produce ten poems by week’s end. Each afternoon, students work on creating a chapbook of their own work, which will be completed by the week’s end. Friday afternoon concludes with students reading their own work at a Poetry Reading/Poetry Slam. No class 7/4.

This camp will focus on an intensive program of drawing and painting with the goal of creating strong portfolio pieces for college applications that represent the student’s current artistic interests and demonstrate drawing skills and awareness of formal visual values. Students will explore a variety of tools, media and approaches draw and paint from direct observation, using still life, models, and landscape as our subject matter, as is typically preferred by most art colleges. Students will begin to develop their own artist practice, discovering interests in new methods and gaining new skills in drawing and image making. This camp will strongly benefit high school students interested in pursuing a college degree in art or design.

The Arts Center is teaming up with the Agricultural Stewardship Association (ASA) for this unique two week program focusing on farming, food, and photography. Students will visit local vegetable and dairy farms to learn about farm operation and harvest food with their own hands. Back at The Arts Center, teaching artist and cook Ellie Markovitch will help students understand the idea of “farm-to-table” with basic cooking skills and work with the student to prepare a meal with the food they’ve harvested while discussing nutrition. The students will also be documenting their time on the farm and in the kitchen while using the Digital Art Studio at The Arts Center to create a series of photographs, recipes, blog posts, and other media related their their experience. The Arts Center will host a food tasting and official exhibition featuring the students’ work at August Troy Night Out to remind the community of the important role farms and food play in our lives.

Explore the exciting possibilities of ceramic art, including throwing on the wheel and hand building. We’ll work with food-safe clay and lead-free glazes to create beautiful pieces of work, from one of a kind bowls, to sculptures from your original sketches and more.

From the Delta to Downtown, experience the “Music of Invention” in this week long immersion into blues music. In five days, teens ages 13-18 will study the blues, create original blues poetry and music, and prepare for a public performance at the end of the week, followed by an evening performance that Friday at Troy Night Out. Students should have at least beginner level experience with their instrument of their choosing and must indicate their instrument at sign up.

In this unique camp, we’re taking a hands-on approach to learn basic woodworking and the art of traditional woodcut printmaking. Students will leave with a completed woodworking project and a set of prints to take home. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience the wood shop and printing press all while completing impressive works of art for your portfolio. No prior woodworking or printmaking experience required.

Focusing on photography concepts and techniques, students will learn the ins and outs of digital photography, exploring the camera and how it works, lighting and studio techniques, and basic digital image processing and printing. Students will take several walking trips in Downtown Troy for inspiration and subject matter to shoot for their projects. Students will also learn to discuss, critique and curate images. Students may bring their own camera, or use the cameras in the digital arts studio.

The best stained glass pulls the viewer into beautiful, colored worlds. Begin to work your way toward perfecting this art form as you learn the basics during this camp, including stained glass design and construction, glass cutting, copper foiling, soldering and cleaning. Each student will create their own, unique stained glass panel to take home.

This program introduces high school students to the exciting world of robotics. Students will learn to solder and program in Basic as they take a box of parts and transform it into a working robot. The camp also includes sessions on robotics in general, and demonstrations of robots developed by the instructor. The camp will culminate in an exhibition for parents, fellow campers and friends.

Looking for inspiration? Let illustrator Ira Marcks challenge you to explore new ideas and methods of creativity. Teens are welcome to participate in this camp, composed of part writing workshop, cartooning class, and storytelling experiment. To explore this strange new world, basic writing and drawing skills are helpful. Curiosity required.

Focusing on photography concepts and techniques, students will learn the ins and outs of digital photography, exploring the camera and how it works, lighting and studio techniques, and basic digital image processing and printing. Students will take several walking trips in Downtown Troy for inspiration and subject matter to shoot for their projects. Students will also learn to discuss, critique and curate images. Students may bring their own camera, or use the cameras in the digital arts studio.

Whether you’re cutting people out of paper, sculpting characters from clay, or drawing your story on paper, you can make make your ideas come to life with stop motion animation. In this camp, creative teens will explore various areas of animation using stop-motion software, DSLR cameras and hands-on art techniques. Students will utilize our digital arts studio and work on Mac computers to create a variety of projects catered to their unique interests.

Whether you love to draw already, or are interested in sharpening your skills, here’s the jump start you need to improve your art portfolio! Guided by the instructor, you’ll focus on direct observation of still life and models using graphite and charcoal. Learn methods for simplifying what you see, create proper proportions and build volume with light and shadow. You’ll be amazed at how much you can improve in one week!

Explore the exciting possibilities of ceramic art, including throwing on the wheel and hand building. We’ll work with food-safe clay and lead-free glazes to create beautiful pieces of work, from one of a kind bowls, to sculptures from your original sketches and more.